Vie numérique, urbaine et climat (EN, FR, ES)

This week the international conference on the economy and digital cities is being held in Montreal, organized by the Canadian Association of Administrative Sciences (ASAC). In a few weeks, the 12th world conference of major conurbations, Metropolis, will take place in Montreal, under the banner “Global challenges: Metropolises in action”. These are two events that are contributing to deeper reflection on the urban changes of today and tomorrow. The reflection I want to share in Montreal concerns the role that the digital economy, and the digital world in general, plays today with regard to urban life. Beyond the concerns related to the accelerated development of technology, it is vital for me yet again to sound the alarm concerning the major issue of our planet – climate change – and in which urban living contributes to its intensification.

In this last weekend of May the great heatwaves in France began. Within a few hours, we saw hundreds of “vertical swimming pools” appearing everywhere, this time with them going viral on the social networks.

For many years we have already had the opportunity to follow weak signals of the rise in this urban antisocial behaviour: breaking water hydrants installed for the use of the fire services to produce these “geysers” for cooling down.

On the other side of the planet, Dhaka, Bangladesh, one of the “factories of the world” – a purveyor of cheap labour in the textile industry on behalf of major brands throughout the world – was almost paralyzed by the panic caused by 30,000 workers leaving their posts, forcing 18 factories to close. The reason? 500 workers fell ill in a single day, 400 of whom were hospitalized, due to the high rise in hot weather. Of course, fatigue and malnutrition amplify the impact of climatic conditions to the detriment of workers’ health.

I recently visited Sri Lanka, in the western and southern parts of the island, during a reflection on the impact of climate change, urban life and the preservation of historical heritage in this part of the world. The sad news, though, is that only this week this very area has seen the worst monsoon surge in 15 years, with figures of 200 dead and at least 300,000 displaced, which unfortunately are still only rough numbers!

East Africa faced severe food insecurity in early 2017, affecting nearly 20 million people, with significant consequences on the social tensions front due to the combination of higher temperatures and low rainfall.

In Buenos Aires, just a few weeks ago, a red alert was declared due to the soaring temperatures, with the temperature approaching 40° C. The last time this alert went red was at the end of 2013, when the temperature rose to 47° C. The heatwave that hit 52 Argentinian cities was the worst since 1906.

We can keep going around the world of our urban lives recognising this situation that continues to get worse year after year. Climate change is a reality and a major threat. This is a survival issue for humanity over the coming decades.

The digital roadmap in our urban lives, which must be carried by all the mayors of the world, from north to south and from east to west of the planet, regardless of the size of the city, must set its sights without the slightest hesitation on actions to contribute to the fight against climate change.

We are at a turning point in the actions we are taking. At a time when serious decisions will be made on the Paris Agreements by the US in the Trump era, it is essential to remember that the digital economy must be one of the levers for the transformation of our lifestyles in our cities and lands, face to face with the climate emergency.

The century of cities is also the century of ubiquity with this dual observation:

the urban world, producing for the most part wealth, has also become a world producer-consumer of mass real-time data,

urban life, which has become a service, is criss-crossed by new functions and services, bringing new economic models from digital platforms.

It is essential to look ahead to the next 10 years if we want technology to go beyond a digital city, without soul and ironically disconnected from the priority of a sustainable, resilient and living city.

In 2020 – in other words, tomorrow – 5G will be deployed into our urban lives, bringing a new breakthrough with regard to digital uses and services. With a performance at least 100 times greater than that of today, this connectivity will for example enable the loading of the equivalent of 30 films in just a few seconds, with a reliability in the order of 99.999% This is a new breakthrough looming on the horizon, with the emergence of distributed architectures which, converged with the growing power of “smart devices”, will open other opportunities in all areas of urban life. With the development of algorithmic techniques based on artificial intelligence – “deep learning” – ‘Data science’ is a power never seen before that will be at the service of the conurbations.

Massive opportunities will be available to all of us in all areas in the life of our cities. The connectivity of objects, IoT, will also enter a new era with high-speed IoT and mass IoT in real time. Digital simulation, virtual reality, augmented reality, and the hybridisation of object and user networks will take on a new dimension.

It is therefore an opportunity, like that of all breakthroughs, to imagine the services according to our priorities. If we want to avoid the massive ‘zombie – geekfication’ of hyper-connected but socially disconnected users, it becomes essential to take a look at the urban roadmap. It will be at the forefront of the rediscovery of the life of a living city, which will have at its heart the battle for the climate, to restore a key position to biodiversity and nature, to put the citizen at the centre of urban life in order to be frugal and economical in resources and, particularly, in energy.

It is vital to imagine today how this new technological breakthrough must be put at the service of a flawless commitment for a human, living, sustainable, resilient city, in order to give itself all the means for this fight every single day: that is, the struggle for the climate.